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World Cup Review- Day 1
An excellent left-footed strike from the edge of the area by the South African Siphiwe Tshabalala had put the South Africans just 11 minutes away from a dream start to their campaign, however Mexican captain Rafael Marquez spoiled the party and as such managed to silence the deafening, startling, yet contentious sound of the Vuvuzelas belonging to the 90,000 strong crowd.
After much anticipation, Africa’s first football World Cup began in a frenzy of colour and sound as the host nation South Africa looked to get off to a positive start at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg against their opponents Mexico, in the first game of Group A.
Despite all of the excitement behind the South Africans, it was Mexico who were the stronger team in the first half, managing to provide a decent impression of the European champions and strong World Cup favourites Spain, with their slick pass and move style, yet without really showing the cutting edge to make the break-through against the ‘Bafana Bafana’. The closest they came was when the young Arsenal forward Carlos Vela scored from close-range before being correctly adjudged offside following a flick-on from a corner. South Africa in contrast was content with playing with 10 men behind the ball and playing on the counter-attack.
This theme continued in the second half, but South Africa made Mexico pay for wasting their dominance with a stunning, counter-attacking goal. Tshabalala ran on to a perfectly weighted through-ball from Teko Modise, before hammering a left-footed shot from the angle of the penalty area across Oscar Perez in the Mexican goal.
Mexico continued to press and got their reward in the 79th minute when Marquez was left in too much space following an Andres Guardado cross and fired home from close range.
Both teams pressed for the winner, and Katlego Mphela came within inches of being the South African hero, as a last minute strike rebounded off the post.
Meanwhile in the other match in Group A, France failed to overcome an average looking Uruguay side in an uneventful goalless draw at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. The main highlight of the match turned out to be the red card for the Uruguay substitute Nicolas Lodeiro after only 20 minutes on the pitch, leaving his side needing to hold on for the final 10 minutes of the match. However, France failed to create any chances to exploit this opportunity.
As a result, this performance has failed to dispel rumours of discontent within the French squad, with a distinct lack of creativity and endeavour on show from even the likes of Ribery and Gourcuff; something which needs to be changed if France want to qualify from the group stage.